Einsteinium

Einsteinium (Es) — 10-Year Trends

As of 2026-09-25 · the last 10 years

Einsteinium’s research intensity currently sits at about 14% of its all-time peak, a level that has remained flat over the last decade despite the element’s historical high occurring in 1970.

Research intensity ran from about 18% of the element's own all-time peak in 2016 to about 14% in 2026 — flat overall, with some movement in between, and the all-time peak (1970) lies before this window. Over the same span its share of research attention across all elements fell. Among the 118 elements, einsteinium has one of the smaller research literatures of any element.

The number of papers involving the element held roughly level from about 24 in 2016 to about 24 in 2025. That is slower than the literature as a whole grew over the same years, so the element lost ground in the wider body of research.

The composition of this small literature has shifted dramatically. The dominant research community is now Superheavy Nuclei, Heavy-Ion Collisions, and Nuclear Structure, which accounts for about 64% of the element's recent research. This is a rising community, having grown from a 17% share in the earlier period. Einsteinium is a minor presence in this much larger community, with under 1% of its papers involving the element. The work here focuses on nuclear structure investigations, such as a 2022 study on laser spectroscopy of Es-253 to Es-255, cited about 15 times, and a 2025 review on decay spectroscopy of heavy nuclei, cited about 5 times.

A second rising community is Dark Matter, Neutrino Physics, and Compact Object Astrophysics, now holding about 14% of the research share, up from zero in the previous period. Einsteinium is again a minor presence here, involved in under 1% of the community's papers. This field involves calculations of stopping powers for swift charged particles, exemplified by a 2023 paper on the SBETHE model, cited about 16 times.

Conversely, Lanthanide and Actinide Coordination Chemistry for Magnetic and Optical Applications has seen a significant decline, dropping from 61% of the element's research in the earlier period to just 7% now. While Einsteinium is a minor presence in this field (under 1% of papers), it was the primary focus of high-impact work in the early part of the window. Key papers include a 2018 study on bond covalency in actinide ions, cited over 100 times, and a 2021 Nature paper characterizing an einsteinium complex, cited about 35 times.

Other communities, including Boron Neutron Capture Therapy and Particle Beam Radiotherapy (7% share, rising) and Uranium Extraction, Separation, and Nuclear Fuel Cycle Chemistry (0% share, declining), represent smaller or vanishing portions of the literature. The remaining 7% of research is distributed across other minor communities.

For a deeper look at the current state of einsteinium research, see the Last 12 Months report or the Executive Brief.